Joystick is not listed under /dev/input/js0 in RHEL-6 and 7

Solution Verified - Updated -

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7

Issue

  • Why is my joystick not listed under /dev/input/js0 in RHEL 6 and 7?
  • How to enable joysticks by default in RHEL 6.x and 7.x?

Resolution

RHEL-6:
* The JOYDEV kernel module was added back in as part of private BZ 1113283 for RHEL 6.7 (2.6.32-573) however no userspace utilities were included.

  • The joystick driver was not included in the upstream kernel when RHEL 6 was released. However, there is an unsupported workaround to add joystick support to the RHEL 6 kernel. The EPEL repository has a kernel module RPM that will install "joydev" support. After enabling EPEL, install the joystick kernel module with the following command:
    #  yum -y install kmod-joydev
  • Upon completion, the running kernel should have support for joystick devices and list them under /dev/input/.

RHEL-7:

  • Update the kernel to kernel-3.10.0-693.el7(RHEL-7.4) or later.

Root Cause

  • Joystick device support is not enabled in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 kernel by default.

Diagnostic Steps

The RHEL6 kernel no longer provides the joystick module as RHEL 5 did:

# grep INPUT_JOY /boot/config-2.6.18-194.el5
CONFIG_INPUT_JOYDEV=m
CONFIG_INPUT_JOYSTICK=y

# grep INPUT_JOY /boot/config-2.6.32-71.el6.x86\_64
# CONFIG_INPUT_JOYDEV is not set
# CONFIG_INPUT_JOYSTICK is not set

Starting with RHEL 6.7 (2.6.32-573) and RHEL-7.4(3.10.0-693.el7), the JOYDEV module was added back in but non of the userspace utilities were included.

# grep INPUT_JOY /boot/config-2.6.32-573.el6.x86_64 
CONFIG_INPUT_JOYDEV=m
# CONFIG_INPUT_JOYSTICK is not set

# ll /dev/input/js0 
crw-r--r--. 1 root root 13, 0 Nov  2 19:54 /dev/input/js0

# grep INPUT_JOY /boot/config-3.10.0-693.el7.x86_64 
CONFIG_INPUT_JOYDEV=m
# CONFIG_INPUT_JOYSTICK is not set

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